Creating Recipe Cards with Word

Guest Author - Chris Curtis

A complete set of your recipes on a self designed recipe card can make a nice gift for a bridal shower, birthday present, or Christmas present. Using MS Word and Avery Postcard blanks (#3263), makes quick work of putting your gift together. Being familiar with using Word table will help you considerably in making your recipe cards.

What you will need:
• Package of Avery Postcards 3263 (60 unprinted cards 4 cards/sheet 4/1/4" x 5 1/2 ")
• Selected clip art. Choose a simple border with an herbal or food theme to place at the top or bottom of the recipe card or a simple food clip at (i.e., candy cane, wine glass, tomato) to place in the upper left corner of the recipe card.

Setting up your Recipe Card
• Launch Word
• Using the page set up command, change the orientation to Landscape
• Turn on the Show/Hide button on your standard toolbar as it will be useful to visually see where you are placing the graphics and tables
• Click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Envelopes & Labels to open the dialog box
• Click on the Labels Tab
• Click on the Options button and select Avery Label #3263 from the choices. Click on OK
• Click on the New Document Button

Word will have created a table structure with four quadrants. Each cell in the table is set for a vertical center orientation. You will next change that selection as follows:
• Click on Table | Select Table
• Click on Table | Table Properties
• Click on the Cell tab and select Top under vertical alignment. Click on OK

Next we want to prepare to bring in the graphical border. Notice that the cursor is at the top of the 1st cell. If you simply hit enter, you will put the cursor above the table which is NOT want you want to do. Follow these instructions instead:
• Click on Table | Select Table
• Change the font size to 9 pt. so that you can fit more on each of the recipe cards.
• Type a couple of letters; then press Enter three times. You can then go back and delete the couple of letters you typed. Repeat this procedure in each of the 4 cells of the table.
• Return your Insertion point to the top of the first cell.

Next we will insert the graphic you have selected.
• Click on Insert | Picture | Clip Art
• Insert the border of your choice. It will appear at the top of the first cell if you had properly returned your insertion point there as instructed.
• You can either insert the same clip art in each of the 4 cells or choose different ones of your liking. If you want to use the same one throughout, you could copy and paste the first instance into the remaining 3 cells or use CTRL drag and drop if you are comfortable using that technique to copy. Make sure you position each of the borders at the top of the table cell.

Next step in the process is to prepare the cards for typing in the recipe. A table structure works well for the ingredients. Generally a 2 column by 4 row table will accommodate most recipes. You can adjust it according to your needs. Here's how:
• Put your insertion point on the last paragraph marker in Table Cell 1
• Using the Insert Table button on the standard toolbar, insert a 2 column x 4 row table
• Place your insertion point on the last paragraph marker in Table Cell 2, press F4 to repeat the Table insertion. Repeat in Table Cells 3 and 4

By default, Word creates tables with printable table borders. For the recipe cards it looks more professionally done if you remove the printable borders as follows:
• Place your cursor in the new table inserted in Table Cell 1.
• Click on Table | Select Table
• Click on the dropdown of the border button on the formatting toolbar and select No Border
• Clear the borders of the tables in each of the other Table cells.

You now have the set up for four cards ready to go but you may have many more recipes to do. Each page provides 4 cards. So now you need to determine how many cards you need and replicate the pages as follows:
• Press CTRL A to select the entire page.
• Click on the Copy button found on the standard toolbar
• Position your insertion point at the top of page 2 and click on the paste button found on the standard toolbar.
• Repeat the process for as many pages as you need.

Now you are ready with all of your blank cards to complete. Starting with Card 1, type a recipe putting the ingredients into the ingredient table and the instructions below the table. You can reduce the font size if necessary for a larger recipe but be cautious to not be so small that you cannot read the card.

Once all the recipes have been typed. Insert enough pages of the post card stock into your printer and print.